Mechanical movement, including vibration, may be caused by any number of things. Mechanical movement may come in numerous forms, including but not limited to harmonic vibration, non-harmonic vibration, rotation, displacement, torque, acceleration or acoustic wave. Through the process of the piezoelectric effect, mechanical movement may induce the formation of an electric charge in certain materials in response to applied mechanical stress. The electric charge that builds up is known as piezoelectricity and it was discovered in 1880 by French physicists Jacques and Pierre Curie.
In various different applications, it would be beneficial to take advantage of the mechanical movement or vibration a system encounters in order to create electricity to power some portion of the system. This portion of the system may be any size and may be limited to a single component or may include the entire system.
Piezoelectric devices are known. However, none of the devices are currently packaged and designed in a way to create an effective energy harvester.